July 17th, 2010

I’m glad to announce that today I won the Swiss Chess960 Championship in Biel, with 5.5/7, with wins against GM Sebastien Feller (2611), GM Mikhail Ulibin (2540), Marco Gähler (2334), Jonas Wyss (2277), and Markus Kerz (2120), a draw against GM Michael Roiz (2645), and only one loss against GM Vitali Golod (2585). Let me remind you that Chess960 is the variant of chess invented by World Champion Robert Fischer, in which the starting position of the main pieces is chosen at random. Find out more about Chess960 on Wikipedia.

More photos of the event and of the winners can be found below.

The full results are as follows:

Rank

Name

Title

Elo

Points

Buchh

1.

Roiz,Michael

GM

2645

ISR

5.5

31.5

2.

Kosteniuk,Alexand

GM

2523

SUI

5.5

30.5

3.

Maze,Sebastien

GM

2573

FRA

5.5

29.0

4.

Feller,Sebastien

GM

2611

FRA

5.0

32.0

5.

Golod,Vitali

GM

2585

ISR

5.0

32.0

6.

Gallagher,Joseph

GM

2499

SUI

5.0

30.0

7.

Gähler,Marco

2334

SUI

5.0

28.5

8.

Mikhalevski,Victo

GM

2610

ISR

4.5

27.5

9.

Cebalo,Miso

GM

2500

CRO

4.5

27.5

10.

Lehmann,Marco

FM

2302

SUI

4.0

30.5

11.

Ulibin,Mikhail

GM

2540

RUS

4.0

28.5

12.

Eppinger,Georg

FM

2237

GER

4.0

27.5

13.

Ekström,Roland

IM

2511

SUI

4.0

27.0

14.

Schiendorfer,Eman

FM

2331

SUI

4.0

26.5

15.

Ermeni,Avni

2255

SRB

4.0

25.0

16.

Kudryavtsev,Eugèn

2207

3.5

26.5

17.

Patuzzo,Fabrizio

FM

2294

SUI

3.5

23.0

18.

Huss,Andreas

IM

2304

SUI

3.5

23.0

19.

Kribben,Matthias,

2128

GER

3.5

23.0

20.

Aklin,Heinz

1843

3.5

20.5

21.

Fassnacht,Peter

2164

GER

3.0

26.5

22.

Wyss,Jonas

2277

SUI

3.0

25.0

23.

Muheim,Sebastian

2164

SUI

3.0

24.5

24.

Kerz,Markus

2120

GER

3.0

24.5

25.

Perruchoud,Benoît

2140

3.0

24.0

26.

Barnier,Alain

2041

FRA

3.0

23.0

27.

Muheim,Markus

2099

SUI

3.0

21.5

28.

Srinivasan,Varada

1812

SUI

3.0

16.5

29.

Manoukian,Alexand

1907

SUI

2.5

21.5

30.

Tcheau,Alain

1987

SUI

2.5

20.0

31.

Walther,Frédéric

1790

2.5

18.5

32.

Giger,Eduard

1653

2.5

17.0

33.

Nguyen,Nam-Khang

1441

2.0

20.0

34.

Planchet,Thomas

1356

2.0

16.5

35.

Perruchoud, Sophi

1.0

18.0

This is me playing (an winning) against GM Sebastien Feller. Look at black’s knight on h8, not a great position I am threatening Rd8, and if Black plays …Qxe7 I take back fxe7 and there is no defence to Rd8, winning.

Just before my game against GM Ulibin (I won this game). Click on the photo to see it bigger, and look at the starting position carefully, the “Queen’s side” looks fine, but the “King’s side” is quite different.